Flood of goals for Fulham

The rain came and so did the fans - at least for a while - as Perth Glory's English Premier League experiment ended with a 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Fulham at Members Equity Stadium last night.

Socceroos goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer did not have to make a save in his first-half workout and substitute Erik Nevland ran riot in the second half with a hat-trick to give the Cottagers a perfect end to their Australian tour.

Some 14,903 fans, who had earlier watched Wolverhampton Wanderers beat North Queensland Fury 2-1, braved the start of the rain in a show of support for Glory's plan to bring overseas teams to Perth annually. But a second-half downpour forced many supporters to seek cover and others to head for home before Nevland turned up the heat.

Maybe a covered rectangular stadium is needed after all?

On the field, there were some positive first-half signs that Glory can crash into the A-League finals for the first time.

Fulham's class eventually shone through and the home side's resistance disintegrated.

Andy Johnson had started the rout with a goal after 16 minutes before Nevland rattled home his three goals in a blistering eight-minute spell and Andranik completed the rout with seven minutes to play.

Eddie Johnson had set Nevland on his way for the first goal in the 60th minute and the Norwegian cashed in with cool finishes in the 64th and 68th minutes.

Glory coach David Mitchell had made three changes to the team which was beaten 1-0 by Wolves on Friday due to injuries to Socceroos midfielder Jacob Burns (hamstring) and Jimmy Downey (knee), while goalkeeper Tando Velaphi was rested after recently recovering from a hamstring problem.

In came youngster Scott Neville at right back, Aleks Vrteski between the posts and Scott Bulloch, who slotted into the left side of midfield.

Fulham started with most of their big guns, the likes of Johnson, Mark Schwarzer, Zoltan Gera, Danny Murphy, Bobby Zamora and Aaron Hughes all rolled out in the first XI but they were at their most potent after a swag of changes.

Johnson was most lively for the visitors in the first half and found the net after Chris Baird's ball over the top caught out Jamie Harnwell and Andy Todd.

Johnson's pace got him to the ball first and after Vrteski thrust out a hand to parry the attempted lob, the Fulham striker was on to the scraps in a flash to steer the ball into the net from an acute angle.

Socceroo Mile Sterjovski, signed from English Championship club Derby County as Glory's marquee man, had shown early signs of his value to his new club when he raced on to Jamie Coyne's ball over the top just seven minutes in.

Sterjovski's first touch was excellent but before he could pull the trigger in front of the Shed end of the ground, Chris Smalling was across to make an important block.

After that, though, Glory struggled to provide the pacy frontman with the service and Glory's best effort in the first half was provided by Bulloch, whose half-volley had Schwarzer scrambling across his goal but the ball went wide of the far upright.